Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Episode 3

October 18, 2010

A mix of heartfelt drama and the usual comedic flair makes this week’s episode of Oreimo one to remember. I still found it a bit cheesy with the way Kyousuke “put his life on the line” to defend Kirino’s unusual hobby in the face of their no-nonsense father, but the end result that shows exactly where the title of this series comes from was so sweet. It was quite possibly the ultimate “dere to the tsundere” moment of the year. Leading up to their father stumbling on Kirino’s secret, most of this episode was just peachy as far as her relationship with Kuroneko and Saori was concerned.While she continues to argue with Kuroneko about Meruru and Maschera, the fact that Kirino finally has friends to talk to about about anime and eroge, and to hang out with at Akihabara undoubtedly means a lot more to her than even she realizes. She’s just one of those girls who can never be to honest with themselves yet extremely talkative, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it is surprising that Kuroneko puts up with her, seeing as she has more of an elitist attitude towards anime and “unrefined” fans like Kirino. I can’t imagine it being a whole lot of fun listening to Kirino bash Maschera over the phone with a “what I say is right” kind of approach, so I’m starting to wonder if Kuroneko lacks otaku friends just as much as Kirino does.

As for Kyousuke, I find it pretty admirable of him to go out of his way to help his little sister this much, given how they’ve been pretty distant for several years now and how she treats him like complete crap even now. The life counseling is one thing, but going up against their father to make him acknowledge his daughter’s strange interest is something else altogether. Still, I loved it when he had to pull out his last resort to cover for her interest in ages 18+ eroge, simply because claiming them to be his own was the only thought that came to my mind. Watching Kyousuke sacrifice his own dignity to protect Kirino was pretty slick, and I found it especially funny how he used her words to feign his love for them. Except in his case, it came off a lot more like, “I’m a healthy high school teenager who’s into incestuous porn! What are you going to do about it! I’m not giving them up!” Let’s not forget this is in the face of a law-enforcing policeman, which added to the hilarity when Kyousuke forced his hand (or more correctly, his fist into his face). From start to finish, this episode was fairly alluring with the model photo shoot, super geeky in the middle, and overly dramatic and somewhat cheesy near the end, but absolutely awesome once Kirino said, “Thanks, big bro.” I wouldn’t hesitate to take a punch in the face for her either if it meant drawing out that type of reluctant sign of appreciation.